About Liz

Baltimore City
I was born in a small town in Alabama and grew up working in the family business, The Heart of Dixie Motel.  The Motel was set on a hill with miles of woods behind and HWY 280 in the front. The town lay in the valley below. The Tallapooosa River, just beyond the valley was dammed in 1920 to create electicity, which flooded many small towns and created a huge lake.  This lake covers my ancestors homes and graves.  Many of my images rise from here.

I graduated from the small but… more

The Sun and Moon Series

These pale colored papers of Cerulean, Robins Egg and Blush, allow the transparencies of the sky, such as the motion of the clouds and the faces of the Deities, to be seen.  Using gouache and ink, I can draw with liquid lines, the silhouettes of pines, whom I love.  How better to conjure water than with another liquid.  Dots and lines of white gouache are capable to describe light on water.  All these things make it possible for me to relay the beauty of the land and water and calm the angst for a little while. All the paper is 22"x 32" and year created was 2017.
  • Moon Adoring the Pine
    Moon Adoring the Pine
    The Moon, for many seasons has watched the Pine grow and longs to rest in the Pine's boughs.
  • Starry Headed Aunt, caring for the stand of Pines
    Starry Headed Aunt, caring for the stand of Pines
    In this Gouche and Ink drawing, the motion of the Galaxies, with lacy arms is directing the wind and crows.
  • Mother Arms
    Mother Arms
    Mother Arms envelope the Lonely Pine, who is awaiting the Moon.
  • Western Pine with Cosmic Hands
    Western Pine with Cosmic Hands
    In this Ink and Gouache drawing, the Lonesome Pine is the lookout of the Moss Covered Stone and the Cosmic Hands are the Lookout for the Pine.
  • Dark Moon Calling
    Dark Moon Calling
  • Deity swallowing the sunrise
    Deity swallowing the sunrise
  • Twilight, Roosting Crow in Rosy Horizon
    Twilight, Roosting Crow in Rosy Horizon
    These two trees are tall pines, the favorites of local crows.
  • Seeded Face, Dark Mother, welcomes the crows and then shooooes them away.
    Seeded Face, Dark Mother, welcomes the crows and then shooooes them away.
  • Bird Terrarium
    Bird Terrarium
    Crows live in the terrarium dress, worn by the Mother.
  • IMG_0600.jpg
    IMG_0600.jpg

Shape Shifters on the Tallapoosa River

These are paintings on canvas using oil and are mostly involving the action which occurs when matter is transforming.
The air and the glow from within the beings of these paintings are engaged in a song, humming vibrations which I strain always to hear.
This work was created between the years of 2011 and 2015.
  • Ancestor
    Ancestor
    This oil on canvas is of the ancestors whose burial ground is under the lake. This lake was created by damming the Tallapoosa River. The resulting lake flooded many small towns and burial grounds.
  • Stuffed Doll with Eye Portals
    Stuffed Doll with Eye Portals
    The guide on the doll's shoulder will lead you into which ever eye portal you wish to enter.
  • Bottle Tree for Haints
    Bottle Tree for Haints
    There is a tradition in Alabama of hanging bottles in a tree just outside the door of a newly deceased person. The newly dead will try to enter the old home place but will be sucked into the bottles instead. Releaving the living inhabitants of the problem of haints.
  • spirit animal reflection
    spirit animal reflection
    Looking deep into the water you will find your true reflection.
  • Spirit underneath, ready to rise
    Spirit underneath, ready to rise
    Just before dawn, the spirits rise from the water and float around the fields until the dew falls again. This painting is oil on canvas.
  • Cloud Spirit
    Cloud Spirit
    Impish cloud spirit, waiting for the proper moment to spring. oil on canvas
  • Spirit rider
    Spirit rider
    Ghost hat, worn by a horse person, when attending a cloud stirring ceremony.
  • Stag on Pink
    Stag on Pink
    This oil on canvas is of a Stag in August.
  • Doll stuffed with Clouds
    Doll stuffed with Clouds
    This oil on canvas is a portrait of a stuffed doll that I stitched with needle and thread, against a cloud filled sky.
  • sky ceremonial headdress
    sky ceremonial headdress
    I painted the sky years ago and waited for someone to come inhabit it. One morning in the still darkness, I began to stitch with paint this hood and then the ties for the deer head, not knowing from stitch to stitch what was about to appear.

Gourds, Moths and Silhouettes with Visitors

These oil on wood and canvas paintings are of organic forms of wings and wood grain.  I also included in this series a story painting of the cart driver and the maiden.  The cart driver would take the maiden to visit her lover ever night, from the shore to his hut.  One night the cart driver arrived early to retrieve the maiden and saw her climb up from the shores out of the dark lake.  Since he had seen her, he had to take her place in the water and become a maiden who lived in the lake and visited her lover every night in his hut.  This painting was created on the bottom of an antique drawer.  It is 15"x 15", oil on wood panel.

  • See Me, Not See Me
    See Me, Not See Me
    Oil on Wood, False Eye Spots on a birch tree. oil on wood panel.18"x 15".
  • Indian Maiden and the Cart Driver
    Indian Maiden and the Cart Driver
    oil paint on the back of a wooden drawer
  • Summer Gourd on a Wire
    Summer Gourd on a Wire
    oil on canvas. This oil sketch includes crows and a woodpecker flying near by. 18"x 24"
  • pine silhouettes and Haint
    pine silhouettes and Haint
  • Gourds and Ancestors
    Gourds and Ancestors
  • wooden sky
    wooden sky
    The sky grew bright and wooden with gnarly knot holes and the sudden eye. Oil on Wood, 20"x 20"
  • Swimming Deer under Strawberry Moon
    Swimming Deer under Strawberry Moon
    The first gift. Just after my father died, a stag swam across the path of my canoe.
  • Lion Head Moth
    Lion Head Moth
    oil on canvas 2013
  • Fall Gourd on a Wire
    Fall Gourd on a Wire
  • Death Head Hawk Moth the Painting
    Death Head Hawk Moth the Painting
    oil on canvas.

Woven Dolls, pinecones and reflections

small oil paintings on canvas
I made cloth dolls with fur hair and button eyes and cloth lips all created using stuffing and whip stitches. These dolls have riders on their shoulders who are guides. This is the last stage of their creation, to make paintings of them so they might live in spaces between.

Piggly Wiggly

These ink drawings were created for illustrating a song. The drawings will be put on a roll and cranked to roll past a viewing window as I sing their story. This group of drawings was created for the Crankie Festival at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD in 2016

Me and Mama went to town
To the Piggly Wiggly, to the Big Bear
grocery stores with animal names
grocery stores filled with poison creme
like creme horns and creme puffs
like the creme filled check out lady.
  • Their eyes were made of stone.
    Their eyes were made of stone.
  • Their fingers only pointed upward
    Their fingers only pointed upward
  • Starring Angel
    Starring Angel
  • Plastic Bouquet
    Plastic Bouquet
  • Creme Filled Check Out Lady
    Creme Filled Check Out Lady
  • Creme Horns
    Creme Horns
  • Big Bear
    Big Bear
  • Mama
    Mama
  • Piggly Wiggly
    Piggly Wiggly
  • taxidermy bear
    taxidermy bear

Water Home

Oil paintings on canvas
  • Holy Ghost
    Holy Ghost
    Sunrise on red banks of the Tallapoosa.
  • Gourd Armature
    Gourd Armature
    Looking like a denuded flag of war
  • Moon Rising
    Moon Rising
    From my canoe..
  • sunset in the water
    sunset in the water
  • Ghost Bell
    Ghost Bell
    Bell and Sky. The bell that my Daddy told me to ring when he died.
  • August Water
    August Water
  • August Moon
    August Moon
  • clouds in the water
    clouds in the water
  • Sunset into yellow
    Sunset into yellow
  • Calling down the Moon
    Calling down the Moon
    A painting of night on the water and the secret rituals that must take place on the shore.

Gnosis and Needle Work

These are paintings on wood which I am working to encourage the glow from within the images to be seen by human eyes.
  • The crow's offering
    The crow's offering
    Oil on wood..36" x 32", 2010
  • Gift from the visitor
    Gift from the visitor
    Pre-human recieves a gift from the visitor, showing the future. Oil on Wood 25"x 42"
  • Ghost Hiding and Waiting 2012
    Ghost Hiding and Waiting 2012
    oil on wood
  • Needlepoint Story Head
    Needlepoint Story Head
    oil on canvas
  • Mother Mary and Cosmic Jesus
    Mother Mary and Cosmic Jesus
    oil on wood
  • Battle for the Devil's Heart in a Netherlandish Headdress
    Battle for the Devil's Heart in a Netherlandish Headdress
    oil on wood
  • Gnosis of Animals
    Gnosis of Animals
    oil on wood
  • Calling Down Voiding Time
    Calling Down Voiding Time
    Oil on wood
  • Travelers and Pupils in the 5th Dimension
    Travelers and Pupils in the 5th Dimension
    oil on wood
  • Looking
    Looking
    Oil sketch on wood. 2013